Oklahoma Supreme Court Won't Let Ryan Walters Jesusify Social Studies Class After All

And there won't be Bibles in every classroom, either.

This will not be your child’s new social studies teacher

Back in September, Ryan Walters, Wonkette’s favorite Christian Nationalist, announced that he would be retiring from his post as the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction in order to spend about the same amount of time shoving religion down the throats of children, but now as the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance instead. This occurred, by sheer coincidence, the day after it was revealed that he had spent over 100,000 state tax dollars meant for education in order to pay PR companies to promote his personal brand and secure more than 400 media appearances for him during his time in office.

OK Schools Chief Quitting To Spend More Time Clinging To His Gun (Peener) And Trump Bible

But prior to that, this past February, he threw in a bunch of last minute changes into the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies without leaving any time for public comment. Almost as though he thought that it might be a little tough to get people to sign on to his plans to promote Christianity in the classrooms and teach children that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump if they knew about them beforehand.

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As it turned out, many parents and teachers were not very happy about this at all, and a whole group of them, led by the Rev. Dr. Mitch Randall, interestingly enough, filed suit against the Oklahoma State Board of Education (OSBE) for violating the state’s Open Meeting Act by adding those things in a mere 17 hours before they voted to implement the standards. The law requires at least 24 hours notice before such changes can be implemented, so as to give the public time to see them and weigh in.

Randall, by the way, seems pretty cool for a guy wearing a lime green bow tie.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma found 5-4 in favor of the plaintiffs in Randal v. Lindel Fields (Fields is the new Superintendent of Public Instruction who replaced Walters) and ordered that the state’s standards revert to the previously implemented 2019 standards.

“We conclude the notice of the agenda for the 2025 standards violated [Title 25, Section 311 (A)(9)] of the Open Meeting Act when the public body used the agenda items in the notice for the purpose of adopting fundamentally different substantive standards not placed on the notice of the agenda. The board’s notice of the agenda was not sufficient to apprise the public of the substantive standards being considered for adoption,” Justice James Edmondson wrote in the majority opinion. “The 2025 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies shall not be enforced. The 2019 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies remain in effect until the state board properly creates new Oklahoma academic standards for social studies with subsequent legislative approval.”

Those dissenting tried to make a case that the changes didn’t violate the act, because the meeting at which they implemented them was announced 24 hours before the board voted on them. Not a very convincing argument, but an argument nonetheless.

“Today’s decision will ensure that Oklahoma families — not politicians — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion,” Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, said in a statement. “These new social studies standards violated students’ and families’ religious freedom by promoting one version of Christianity and advancing Christian Nationalist disinformation. Not on our watch. Public schools are not Sunday schools.”

Sunday schools do exist and people are free to send their children to them. The purpose of statutes like these are not for those parents. They are meant to force Christianity on the children of those who choose not to send their children to Sunday school. They are meant to use public schools for the purpose of converting children to Christianity, or to at least make them feel awkward enough about not being Christian that they will at least pretend to believe.

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This is, you should know, not the only recent victory for those who don’t think Oklahoma school children should have Christianity forced upon them. Lindel Fields’ office announced back in October that they would not be continuing with Walters’ plan to put a Bible in every classroom in the state — another statute that the state was being sued over. Fields also did not so much defend Walters’ changes to the curriculum and, in fact, had asked the Supreme Court to continue the pause on those changes so that the Board could review the standards and make any changes necessary.

“I think there will be some changes to them, yes,” Field told reporters back in October.

“I think we need to look at all of the things that were added to see if they’re germane to what kids need to learn,” he added.

Now, he’s also a Republican, appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, so it’s possible he is kooky in other ways, but at least not so much in that way. At the very least, he’s no Ryan Walters, and for that, the entire state of Oklahoma should be grateful.